Bondsman in Seminole county – Google’s book-scanning project legal

Source     : The Star
By            : Tech News – PR
Category : Bail Bondsman in Sanford, Bondsman in Seminole County

Google’s book-scanning project legal

A US appeals court ruled that Google’s massive effort to scan millions of books for an online library does not violate copyright law, rejecting claims from a group of authors that the project illegally deprives them of revenue. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected infringement claims from the Authors Guild and several individual writers, and found that the project provides a public service without violating intellectual property law. The authors sued Google, whose parent company is now named Alphabet Inc, in 2005, a year after the project was launched.

But Google argued that the effort would actually boost book sales by making it easier for readers to find works, while introducing them to books they might not otherwise have seen. A lawyer for the authors did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Google had said it could face billions of dollars in potential damages if the authors prevailed.
Circuit Judge Denny Chin, who oversaw the case at the lower court level, dismissed the litigation in 2013, prompting the authors’ appeal. Chin found Google’s scanning of tens of millions of books and posting “snippets” online constituted “fair use” under US copyright law.

A unanimous three-judge appeals panel said the case “tests the boundaries of fair use,” but found Google’s practices were ultimately allowed under the law. “Google’s division of the page into tiny snippets is designed to show the searcher just enough context surrounding the searched term to help her evaluate whether the book falls within the scope of her interest (without revealing so much as to threaten the author’s copyright interests),” Circuit Judge Pierre Leval wrote for the court. In a statement, Google spokesman Aaron Stein said the project is like a “card catalogue for the digital age.”

“Today’s decision underlines what people who use the service tell us: Google Books gives them a useful and easy way to find books they want to read and buy, while at the same time benefiting copyright holders,” he said. The individual plaintiffs who filed the proposed class action against Google included former New York Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton, who wrote the acclaimed memoir, Ball Four. The 2nd Circuit had previously rejected a similar lawsuit from the Authors Guild in June 2014 against a consortium of universities and research libraries that built a searchable online database of millions of scanned works.

Read More : thestar.com.my/Tech/Tech-News/2015/10/19/Googles-book-scanning-project-legal–US-appeals-court/

Seminole County Bail Bonds – An Interesting Theory for Why Robots Need Legal Rights

Source    :  Tech Insider
By            :  Danielle Muoio
Category : Seminole County Bail Bonds, Bail Bondsman in Sanford

An Interesting Theory for Why Robots Need Legal Rights

It’s inevitable that at some point down the road, humans will regularly interact with robots. Humanoid robots are being developed to do everything from working alongside astronauts in space to serving as your personal assistant. Which is why Yueh-Hsuan Weng, a research associate and co-founder of the ROBOLAW.ASIA Initiative at Peking University, says we need a set of laws that will guide how humans interact with robots. Weng is specifically advocating to give robots a special legal status called the “Third Existence,” which aims to help protect robots, as well as their owners.   “My main argument is that the current laws do not help human beings to project their empathy while interacting with humanoid robots,” Weng told Tech Insider via email.

For example, if someone were to walk up to your pet and injure it, the person responsible can be found legally liable for the damage he or she has caused. His argument is that this kind of accountability helps ensure humans display a certain amount of empathy when interacting with animals. Weng’s Third Existence looks to put the same concept in place, except for intelligent robots instead of pets. The Third Existence would protect humans as well. If you’re bitten by someone’s pet, for example, the pet owner is liable for that attack. If a robot were to commit some kind of wrongdoing, the robot’s owner (not the manufacturer) would become liable. Weng’s advocacy came to the forefront of public dialogue when surveillance footage showed a drunk man kick a humanoid robot called Pepper, Fortune reported. Pepper is a personal robot buddy that can sense when you’re feeling down. The emotive robot recently met Neil deGrasse Tyson and gave him an (adorable) hug. The 60-year-old man, Kiichi Ishikawa, kicked Pepper in a fit of rage, damaging the robot to the point that it moves slower. Ishikawa was arrested for his misdeed, but the most he is liable for is damage to property. But Weng said this incident shows how laws need to be changed to better protect robots.

“When I heard about this footage, my reaction was not surprise at all as incidents like this one have occurred before,” Weng wrote in an email to Tech Insider. “During the 19th century, steam powered locomotives were deemed ‘monsters’ and therefore inappropriately treated in Shanghai and Yokohama when they were initially introduced to the Asian society.” But robots, unlike your dog or cat, are not self-aware. Pepper may have been damaged when he was kicked, but he’s incapable of processing the event that occurred. So why should robots have special legal rights when they aren’t sentient? Weng answered that legal rights need to be established regardless as robots become more integrated into our daily life for safety reasons. “For the foreseeable future, robots will be ‘objects of law’ even if they can’t feel or think,” he explained. A “Robot Safety Governance Act” will help ensure future robot-human interactions are safe, he said. Gurvinder Virk, a professor of robotics at the University of Gävle in Sweden, chaired a committee that put together the first safety protocol in place for personal care robots, which was published February 2014. The protocol outlines safe human-robot interactions to provide legal liability in case an accident occurs.

In an email exchange with Tech Insider, Virk said that safety regulations such as this one are necessary because current regulations only apply to industrial robots and don’t account for humanoid ones. Virk said he thinks as robots become more advanced, they will need greater protection.”Maybe robots are OK to be treated as ‘any other product’ at the moment but when the degree of autonomy has advanced much more, maybe we will need to think of more specific rules and regulations to accommodate the advanced intelligent robots and robot systems,” he said.

Read More : techinsider.io/yueh-hsuan-weng-explains-why-robots-need-legal-rights-2015-11

Bail Bondsman in Sanford – International sports law experts share knowledge at AFC Legal Workshop 2015

Source    :  Law in Sport
By            :  Press Release
Category : Bail Bondsman in Sanford, Bondsman in Seminole County

International sports law experts share knowledge at AFC Legal Workshop 2015

The Asian Football Confederation’s high-profile AFC Legal Workshop 2015 ended today in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Experts in international sports law from the AFC, FIFA, UEFA, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the AFC judicial bodies gathered at the two-day event, hosted by Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration yesterday and today. AFC Acting General Secretary Dato’ Windsor John said: “This is an important event for the AFC, as commitment to sports justice is at the very core of football. The AFC judicial bodies and the AFC Legal Committee are vital to the integrity of the AFC competitions and to the credibility of the sport in Asia.”

The event started with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the AFC and Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA). KLRCA is an internationally recognised institution with over 700 domestic and international arbitrators. The MoU between the two organisations establishes a basis for further co-operation in respect of the use of facilities and services provided by both parties. The agreement will benefit the AFC as well as the AFC Member Associations in various aspects of their legal work. The main objective of the AFC Legal Workshop 2015 was to facilitate dialogue between the participants in order to ensure consistency and fairness in all football judicial matters and to helping maintain the robustness of the disciplinary systems.

The event also provided an opportunity to ensure the AFC’s judicial procedures are in line with those of other international football governing bodies. A task force had been appointed to review and amend the AFC Disciplinary Code and a new draft of the code was examined during the workshop. The topics discussed at the meeting included match-fixing and best ways to combat it at member association and confederation level. Other integrity and disciplinary matters, as well as anti-doping, were also on the workshop agenda.

Read More : lawinsport.com/sports-law-news/item/international-sports-law-experts-share-knowledge-at-afc-legal-workshop-2015